Contact Ahrre Maros Presents..... for event and ticket information.
Saturday, March 07, 2009 at 8:00 PM (ET)
As of 4 PM Saturday, march 7th, the on-line box office is closed. But there are plenty of seats left, so come on down!!! ~ Ahrre
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The Watchung Arts Center's "Powerful Woman of Song" Series
Proudly presents...
The Nields
in Concert!
Sample there music here: http://www.myspace.com/nerissaandkatrynanields
About Nerissa & Katryna....
Nerissa and Katryna Nields have been the darlings of the coffeehouse/festival scene since 1991, with tunes ranging from off-the-hook idiosyncratic to kicking to heartbreaking. "Our parents were total folkies," says Nerissa. "Their first date was a Pete Seeger concert and their second was a Harry Bellefonte concert. We used to go to a family camp in the Adirondacks every summer where people sat around a fire. That's where I learned how to finger pick. The music teacher at our school, Jack Langstaff, was more of the English tradition of folk music than the American, and his legacy was really strong. We grew up on simple folk songs."
"The thing about that camp," Katryna recalls, "was that it was just part of the community. One of my top five musical memories in my entire life was one night at camp when it was cold and the fire was blazing and everybody sang 'When the Saints Go Marching In.' Just a couple guitars or maybe a banjo and people swapping songs with everybody singing along. Woody Guthrie and Weavers songs, Odetta. 'Charlie on the MTA,' 'The Frozen Logger,' 'Goodnight Irene,' 'This Land is Your Land,' 'Wabash Cannonball.' Maybe a little Bob Dylan. Bill Staines would have been considered really edgy. I know people think those old songs are quaint, but when everybody is singing them, it becomes such powerful music. Music you eventually can’t even remember where you learned it, but it becomes part of your vocabulary – I love that."
Their new album, Sister Holler demonstrates that it is possible to return to tradition while growing musically into new sounds. The rhythm section from the Nields' former eponymous five-piece band remains the same, with Dave Chalfant on bass and Dave Hower on drums. Though now the hot electric guitar leads and the folk-rock attitude are replaced with banjos and accordions and mandolins and a more refined sensibility. The other significant difference between now and then is that both Nerissa and Katryna have become mothers, the presence of children in the house bringing with it a desire for greater musical directness.
"Having children has brought us back to our roots in a powerful way. I'm much more drawn to the honesty of folk music, the simplicity of it. Writing songs for this record was like falling off a log. They were all so easy to write; like coming home," says Nerissa. With Katryna adding, "My kids love singing songs from Sister Holler. And I love how, when we sing these 'Nerissa' songs in concerts, everybody sings along, even though it’s the first time they've heard them. They're songs that really invite the listener into the music making process."
And when the listener is thus invited and engaged, something happens, and for a moment, the coffeehouse, the church basement, the folk festival — or just the space between the ears of a listener wearing headphones with Sister Holleron his CD player or iPod — is turned into an Adirondack summer camp campfire sing, and we are all reminded of who we’ve always been.
That's no small thing.
Ahrre Maros is the owner of Ahrre's Coffee Roastery in Westfield & the Fair Trade Coffee Company on line. He has been presenting live musical events since 1992, when he first opened the Common Ground Cafe in Summit. The Cafe is gone now, but Ahrre continues bringing Professional Touring Musical Artists to the area for the benefit of the local community and several local Charities.
Currently, Ahrre presents two separate Concert Series; the Coffee With Conscience Concert Series in Westfield and the Powerful Women of Song Concert Series at the Watchung Arts Center in Watchung.
Both Concert Series act as fund-raisers—raising much needed funds for worthy causes—while providing the participants with the opportunity to serve the larger community, providing artists with a venue to display their talents, providing an audience with a cultural experience and generally strengthening the local community by bringing a group of people together for an evening of music in a comfortable setting.
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